Did you know the 747SP is 14.35 m shorter than the standard 747?

The 747SP measures 56.31 m (184 ft 9 in) in length, 14 m (47 ft) less than the original 747 variants. To counter the reduced yaw-moment arm resulting from that shorter fuselage, the SP received a taller vertical tail, and it also differs from the other variants in having simplified flaps.

South African Airways accepted the ZS-SPA at Paine Field on 19 March 1976. On 23 March it departed on a nonstop flight to Cape Town in an attempt to set a new world distance record for commercial aircraft. It reached Cape Town on 24 March 1976 after 17 hours and 22 minutes in the air. The aircraft had taken off from Boeing's factory in Seattle, and the mark stood as the world record for a commercial aircraft flying nonstop without in-flight refuelling, a record that held for more than a decade. The ZS-SPA, named "Matroosberg" and bearing serial number 21132, was SAA's first SP, and its record for the longest nonstop commercial flight, set during the factory delivery between PAE and CPT, stood until 1989.

The first 747 rolled out of the Everett assembly building on 30 September 1968, before the world's press and representatives of the 26 airlines that had ordered it. Its first flight took place on 9 February 1969.